Train Doors Open in Tunnel Again

Again this morning, the doors on an eight-car Metro train opened while a train car was still in the tunnel outside Rosslyn Station. No one was injured, but alarming as it is for this to happen once, it now has happened twice in two weeks.

Dear Dr. Gridlock:
The incident on an eight-car Orange Line train at Rosslyn, in which the doors of the last car were opened into the tunnel, reported on your blog on April 21 happened again this morning.

By dumb luck, my partner and I have been present for both incidents on our commute into the city from Court House. Today, at 8:19 a.m., the incident repeated itself identically.

An eight-car train, which had successfully made it all the way onto the Court House platform where we boarded, pulled into Rosslyn, but the last car failed to make it into the station.

The operator then opened the doors, sending those passengers attempting to exit at Rosslyn scrambling up the car to exit; there was no part of the eighth car (No. 5005), however, that reached the platform.

There was no indication from the operator that he knew of the issue. We continued on to Foggy Bottom, where the train again made it all the way onto the platform (as at Court House, and subsequently, at Farragut West where we disembarked), and the Rosslyn-bound passengers bolted across to catch a Vienna-bound train. Brian MoultonArlington

Metro is investigating this second incident, as well as the first. Steven Taubenkibel, a Metro spokesman, said the station manager at Rosslyn alerted rail operations managers about the incident this morning.

Once again, the operator did not pull the train up the full length of the platform before opening the doors. Eight car trains fill the entire platform.

I heard from four people who were aboard car No. 5005 this morning. Remarkably, all said they were aboard the train car that opened doors in the tunnel last week, as well. It's enough to put people back on the road.